Metal playlists from the underground
Presenting a holdover sound straight from the danger-laden late-era Sunset Strip days with some modern day tweaking, Los Angeles outfit Blacklist Union portray the grit and recklessness associated with the excesses of rock ‘n roll with conviction on BREAKIN’ BREAD WITH THE DEVIL. This 10-track salvo to the bottomless glass contains the proper mixture of […]
Ukrainian symphonic black metal mavens Capitollium unleash a vehement display of hellfire and brimstone on their nine-track affair BLOODFALL OF FLESH. Incorporating everything from operatic female vocals and atmospheric keyboards to dastardly blast beats and demonic vocal deliveries, this quintet hurls volumes of venomous melodies with vitriolic shifts in velocity on cuts like “Mensis of […]
That Metal Show starring hard rock guru Eddie Trunk, comedian Jim Florentine, and Inside The NFL’s Don Jamieson aired its fifth episode on VH1 Classic last night at 11 p.m. Episode 5 began with the question, “Do people care about new music from classic hard rock bands?” Florentine made the point that the classic bands […]
Modern rock quartet Ism provide an electronically-manipulated listening experience chock full of melancholy with URGENCY, the NYC troupe’s latest 12-track offering. This disc juxtaposes the technological desolation of NIN with the scattershot edginess of latter-day U2, whipping up a somewhat forced array of shadowy tracks such as “Postlude” and “Sacred Cow” that dubiously fall between […]
Jack Black on Brutal Legend, a video game he developed that is due out next year: “When I was a child listening to metal, I imagined myself slaying dragons to the music, or riding pterodactyls, or strangling a Minotaur, or making love to a beautiful centaur. You couldn’t do that back then. You could only […]
Veteran Norwegian black metal troupe Keep of Kalessin return with their fourth endeavor, the nine-track KOLOSSUS. Emanating from the depths of traditional black metal, this unit opts to expand its musical horizons by incorporating a slew of other styles into their dark riff heavy mix, adding textures from the spectrum of metal to their template […]
NYC progressive death metal squad Hung bring an experimental twist to the heavier end of the metal spectrum that instantly grabs your attention on their five-track collection PROGENY. With an evil vocal rasp leading the charge, the key ingredient which sets Hung apart is the frantic and foreboding violin (yes you read that right) of […]
Hand to Hand is listed by their record label as a hardcore emo rock group, which in fairness to all involved is a good description, fitting the bill for this collective from Orlando, FL. This versatile unit amps up My Chemical Romance-like melodic rock to Trivium-like levels of intense new school metal while taking post-hardcore […]
How five kids from the middle of California grew up with a NYHC-sized chip on their shoulders is inexplicable, yet Dear Life brings it with the gravel-throated conviction and oodles of beefy breakdowns you’d expect from an East Coast crew on FRAMEWORK. Imagine a tough guy version of Comeback Kid for an indication of what […]
Today Metallica posted an interesting music video for “All Nightmare Long,” the latest single from Death Magnetic. The video contains Soviet scientists conducting strange experiments on meat, a deceased cat, and a human, which eventually leads to toxic zombie chaos in a cartoon format followed by live action havoc. Anyone care to interpret?